Philadelphia Slavery Exhibit Restored
The National Park Service is restoring the slavery exhibit at Independence Mall's President's House in Philadelphia after it was removed during the Trump administration. The exhibit commemorates nine enslaved individuals owned by George Washington.
- The restored outdoor exhibit, titled "Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation," originally opened in 2010 as a joint project between the City of Philadelphia and the National Park Service. - The removal of the exhibit in January 2026 was a result of an executive order from the Trump administration titled "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History." The order called for a review of displays that "disparage Americans past or living." - The City of Philadelphia filed a lawsuit against the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to have the exhibit reinstated. In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe compared the administration's justification for removing the exhibit to the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984." - The exhibit commemorates the lives of nine enslaved individuals brought by George Washington to the President's House: Austin, Christopher, Giles, Hercules, Joe, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris, and Richmond. - The site of the President's House, where the exhibit is located, is just a block away from Independence Hall, where the words "All men are created equal" were adopted. - One of the enslaved individuals, Oney Judge, successfully escaped to freedom from the President's House with the assistance of Philadelphia's free Black community. - The restoration, which began on February 19, 2026, was ordered by a federal judge to be completed by a specific deadline while the lawsuit proceeds. - Activist groups, such as the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition, were instrumental in advocating for the initial creation of the exhibit and its recent restoration.
